Some considerations on the use of the impact factor of scientific journals as a tool to evaluate research in psychology

This paper identifies and presents some characteristics of the psychology journals included in each of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) categories in 2002. The study shows that most of the journals belong to the categories of Multidisciplinary Psychology (102) and Clinical Psychology (83). Their ranking is seen to vary depending on the category, and the same journal may occupy different positions in different JCR categories. Journals included in the categories of Biological Psychology, Experimental Psychology and Multidisciplinary Psychology had the highest impact factor (IF).